Hawaii can't fit woman's last name on license (Yahoo News)

Posted on: Sun, 09/15/2013 - 10:30 By: Tom Swiss

Are you allowing enough room in your data fields? Or are you expecting that people will change their lives to comply with the limits of your system?

Hawaii can't fit woman's last name on license (Yahoo News)

Janice "Lokelani" Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele is in the midst of a fight with state and local officials to ensure that her full name gets listed on a license or ID card. Her name is pronounced: KAY'-ee-hah-nah-EE'-coo-COW'-ah-KAH'-hee-HOO'-lee-heh-eh-KAH'-how-NAH-eh-leh.

The documents only have room for 35 characters. Her name has 35 letters plus a mark used in the Hawaiian alphabet, called an okina.

So Hawaii County instead issued her driver's license and her state ID with the last letter of her name chopped off. And it omitted her first name.